


Under a Blue Moon, I Saw You

by aqonoluna



Series: Non-Binary Goro Akechi [5]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi Goro Needs a Hug, Alpha Akechi Goro, Alpha Iwai Munehisa, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - No Metaverse (Persona 5), Alternate Universe - No Phantom Thieves of Hearts (Persona 5), Alternate Universe - Yakuza, M/M, Minor Persona 5 Protagonist/Sakamoto Ryuji, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Persona 5 Protagonist, Omega Sakamoto Ryuji, Piercings, Tattoos, Yakuza
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:49:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28677687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aqonoluna/pseuds/aqonoluna
Summary: Munehisa Iwai and Goro Akechi have a long history together.They first met when Goro was forced away from his mother to live with his father, the head honcho of a Yakuza clan, where Iwai was a lackey. Iwai took a quick liking to the child, proceeding to do whatever he could to protect him from his father.Fast forward to present, the pair run a gun shop/tattoo and piercing parlor in Shibuya, living relatively normal lives as adult alphas.Mostly.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Iwai Munehisa, Kurusu Akira/Sakamoto Ryuji, Persona 5 Protagonist/Sakamoto Ryuji
Series: Non-Binary Goro Akechi [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1980685
Comments: 10
Kudos: 9





	1. I’m Gonna Be Right By Your Side No Matter What

**Author's Note:**

  * For [decayofanova](https://archiveofourown.org/users/decayofanova/gifts).
  * Inspired by [People in Boxes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28162443) by [decayofanova](https://archiveofourown.org/users/decayofanova/pseuds/decayofanova). 



> This is inspired by, and is an AU of, “People in Boxes” by decayofanova, as is tagged above.
> 
> I love Nova (and her stories) so fucking much. I was inspired for this particular because I love Iwai and Goro’s relationship in her story, plus we got into a conversation about Bitching, so I wanted to write this for her!
> 
> Follow me on Twitter @shuryuake for all the NSFW, problematic, and dead dove content you could ever want.

The pitter-patter of small feet running through carpeted hallways echoed through the much-larger-than-necessary estate of Masayoshi Shido.

It wasn’t an uncommon sound. It wasn’t atypical for the people who resided in the estate along with Shido to be minding their own business when, suddenly, the sound of a small child running through the hallways interrupted them. Sometimes the running would be accompanied by airplane noises, or sometimes by whatever sound a train made, but usually it was just the sound of bare feet on carpet that was far too expensive for what it was.

Today, it was accompanied by crying.

That was, the crying was more like loud, heart-wrenching sobbing. It was the kind of crying that could make (almost all) grown men fall to their knees and weep. The words being sobbed along with the crying were largely incoherent, but one particular word, being almost screamed over and over again, stood out from the rest like a neon sign in the middle of a desert at night.

“Daddy!” the small voice of the running child sobbed. “Daddy, Daddy, _Daddy!_ Where are you?!”

 _“That had better not be_ **_my_ ** _son crying like that,”_ Shido hissed to no one in particular but also to the men sitting on the other side of his desk. At a fresh round of _Daddy, Daddy, Daddy! Where are you, Daddy?!_ Shido all but slammed his fist down on the desk and got to his feet. “I am going to show that boy—!”

“Sir,” said one of Shido’s men, who got to his feet as well. 

Although Shido was much taller, broader, and bigger overall, the man choosing to stand up to him held his own. He had to, considering his whole job was to deal with people on behalf of Masayoshi Shido, be it to intimidate or kill. One couldn’t really do that, generally, if they were meek.

“Let me deal with him, Shido-san,” the man continued, digging in his pocket for a lollipop. The one he came back with was pink. Strawberry. Perfect, he decided, closing his hand around it. “You’ve got more important things to tend to than some… How would you put it? _Crying brat?_ Just leave this to me, yeah? I’ll take care of it.”

 _“Daddy!”_ the sobbing in the background continued, getting louder as the source of the sobbing found his way to Shido’s office. _“Daddy, where are you?!”_

Shido formed his right hand into a fist as he looked back over his desk, finally, _actually_ staring down the man who stood before him. Particularly, he glared at the gecko tattoo that was on his neck, almost making a _tsk_ sound in response to it. He did every time he saw the tattoo; every time he was _forced_ to think about what the tattoo meant, because he had been _forced_ to hear about it once, over one too many drinks, after he lost—

 _“Daddy! Please!”_ the little voice begged, not only sobbing but also begging now. _“Where are you?! Please, Daddy!”_

The fist Shido had formed slammed into the desk he was standing at, knuckles first, the loud sound reverberating through the room. No one in the room flinched, far too used to Shido’s outburst at this point for that kind of a reaction.

Besides, he was a blowhard most of the time, at the best of times. There wasn’t much that was _actually frightening_ about Masayoshi Shido, especially being one of his lackies; one of the lucky ones who had the unfortunate displeasure of spending most of their time around him.

“Fine,” Shido snarled. “Deal with it, but if he’s still crying in two minutes, I’ll come out there and—“

“—deal with it yourself. Yeah, yeah… I got it,” Shido’s lackey finished, heading for the door as he waved a dismissive hand. “I’ll get the kid to stop crying.”

One of these days, his dismissive actions were going to get him in some serious trouble with his boss — or, perhaps even worse, shot and killed...

...but until _one of those days_ came around, he was the best lackey Masayoshi Shido had, and they both knew that, so until the day Shido found someone better—

—Munehisa Iwai would continue pushing his limits and pushing Shido’s buttons, if only because he could.

“You had better,” Shido growled as Iwai left the room, shutting the door behind him. “I promise if you don’t deal with it, I—”

Iwai rolled his eyes, muttering “fucking stupid blowhard” under bid breath as soon as he was out of Shido’s earshot and out of his line of vision. He even paused for a moment just to _make sure_ he hadn’t been heard, and when he was positive he hadn’t, he added a muttered “fucking prick” before he actually took to finding the man’s son.

•••

It didn’t actually take very long to find Shido’s son. All Iwai had to do was follow the sound of sobbing and pleading for his daddy. The hardest part about finding him was the fact he kept running through the hallways, so just when Iwai thought he tracked him down, he ran down another hallway.

“Goro!” Iwai called out once he finally got an actual _visual_ on the child. The little boy spun around to face him, almost immediately putting a stop to his crying. 

It looked like he was holding something, Iwai thought, but he couldn’t make out what it was from the other end of the hallway. He wondered momentarily if whatever it was, was the source of all the tears. 

“Come over here, baby,” he said gently, getting down on one knee. He held out the strawberry-flavored lollipop, as if to entice him. Child or not, an alpha wasn’t going to _just_ _listen_ to him without some sort of enticement to do so. “What’re ya crying about? What’s wrong?”

Goro clutched his hand around the item in his hand and ran down the hallway to get to Iwai, who scooped him up in his arms as soon as the child was close enough for him to do so. The hug resulted in whatever the object was falling to the ground, but from the corners of Iwai’s eye as he hugged Goro, he could vaguely see that whatever it was, was broken in two, so it probably didn’t matter that it had hit the floor in exchange for a hug and a lollipop.

“Did yer toy break?”

 _“Yes,”_ Goro replied, his voice small and wavering as he clutched himself tighter around Iwai and buried his face into his neck, even with a lollipop in his mouth. He continued talking _around_ the lollipop, which slightly slurred his words. 

“I promise I was being careful with it, but it broke! I thought it couldn’t break, but I accidentally dropped it when I was playing with it and it—!”

“Shh-shh. It’s okay, Goro. It’s alright,” Iwai murmured, very gently cutting the child off before he worked himself up and started crying again.

He began trying to purposely overwhelm him with the scent of hot springs (which was what Goro had once told him he smelled like, and he had even said he liked it, because it made him feel safe and warm, like the hot springs outside) in an attempt to further calm him down; to further relax him. Even if he wasn’t his parent, and wasn’t particularly trying to be, perhaps he would get lucky and be able to soothe the small alpha with his own alpha scent like he _was_ his parent (because lord above knew Shido, Goro’s _actual parent,_ was never going to do it). 

It seemed like it was working.

“We’ll take care of the toy,” he added. “It’s okay that it broke. All toys break and you played with that one a lot, didn’t ya? Almost nothing is indestructible, y’know.”

Goro pulled back from the hug a little bit, looking up at Iwai with bright, shining red-brown eyes that were tear-filled (which would have been kind of comical if it weren’t so unbelievably sad), but at least he wasn’t crying any longer. 

(Thank goodness for that, too. Iwai could handle tears; it was the crying that got to him the most. He couldn’t handle crying, least of all from a child, and even less still from the child of a man he absolutely abhorred and would cause an insurrection against, if he could.) 

The small alpha took the lollipop out of his mouth, holding the stick in his fist as he spoke, kneeling down to pick up the toy with his free hand, giving the pieces to Iwai.

It had been a train. It hadn’t been anything too big or too impressive, but it had most assuredly been a train.

“I-I… I know toys are supposed to break, Iwai-san, but this one was from my mommy and I loved it. She gave it to me for my birthday before I was brought to this place to be with Daddy.”

Iwai bit his bottom lip, taking the broken train from Goro, holding the pieces in his hands. He thought about perhaps repairing it, but there was really nothing he could do; it was in too many pieces, most of them jagged, a few nothing more than shards. 

It really was busted beyond repair. 

For a few moments, he really thought about asking what happened to it, but he didn’t want to cause a fresh set of water works from the child, so he just let it go, setting the broken pieces to the side before he collected Goro in his arms once again.

“I’m sure yer mom would understand,” Iwai murmured against Goro’s ear, rubbing his back idly. He continued to try comforting him with his scent; continued simply holding the child. “But if it helps, I can try ‘n find ya a new one. I’ll see what I can do on my breaks and such. One that looks exactly like the one yer mom got ya. Ya won’t even be able to tell the difference.”

Goro’s tears seemed to dry up immediately and his frown just as quickly turned to a bright grin as he placed both his hands on either of Iwai’s shoulders. His eyes shined, but this time because of the smile that was reaching them.

Nothing else in the world was more worth it than making Goro Akechi smile, in Iwai’s opinion, and he had a growing feeling that nothing else ever would be.

“You would do that for me?!”

Iwai smiled softly and nodded. “Of course I would do that for you,” he said. “I would do anything for you.”

Goro gasped a little louder than necessary, throwing his arms around Iwai’s neck. He hugged him tightly, all but pressing his small frame against the sturdy one of the older alpha he sometimes wished like him were actually his Daddy instead of the mean, bald man he had watched almost kill some lady one time.

…but at least he got to have Iwai in his life at all, right?

“Thank you, Iwai-san!” Goro replied brightly, somehow managing to hug him even tighter than he already was. Not that Iwai minded; he was quick to tighten his own gold just a little bit more. “You’re the best alpha ever! When I get older, I wanna—”

Iwai waited a moment, waiting for Goro to finish his thought, but when he didn’t, he pulled the child back from him to look down at him. He raised an eyebrow when it seemed like he was contemplating something — and then rose both of them when Goro snapped back to attention like he hadn’t just been lost in thought.

“I wanna smell like this lollipop when I get older,” he said, putting it back in his mouth. (It clearly _wasn’t_ what Goro was going to say, but Iwai let it go; let the conversation go where it would.) The continued words he spoke went back being slurred by the candy. “I like strawberries! They smell nice and other people think they smell nice. I wanna smell like strawberries!”

Iwai thought about saying alphas didn’t _usually_ smell like fruit; that fruit was a sweet scent that _normally_ omegas had (among most sweet scents), but who was he to step on the kid’s dream? Who was he to tell him what he could and couldn’t smell like? His scent was going to come in the way it came in, but he saw no reason to step on the dreams of a child in the process.

“I hope you do. Strawberries are nice,” Iwai said, then got off the ground with Goro in his arms. “Do you want some lunch?”

Goro grinned and nodded, wiping away the remainder of his tears with the back of his wrist. He was holding the broken pieces of his train again, because Iwai had given them back in order to stand up, but he wasn’t concerned about it anymore. Iwai was going to make it better, like he always did.

“Yes! I’m hungry!”

Iwai laughed, carrying Goro to the kitchen. “If you don’t tell your dad anything we talked about,” he said, “we’ll raid the good fish and have sushi.” He paused for a moment before he added, with a warm grin, “Don't tell him about that, either.”

Goro made a face (that made Iwai chuckle) and shook his head, putting the pieces of his train on the counter as he was out down on said surface. After making sure the pieces of his train were safe, he turned back to Iwai, watching him maneuver the kitchen like _he_ was the chef that worked here.

“I’m not a snitch,” Goro proclaimed proudly. “I would never tell on you, Iwai-san. I would never tell on anyone here, but ‘specially not you! You’re too nice.”

Iwai laughed, shaking his head. Perhaps he was too nice for his own good, but there was a lot at stake, allowing Masayoshi Shido to do whatever the hell he wanted with this child. The last thing Japan needed was another lunatic like Shido, so if he could prevent Goro from becoming even remotely like his father, he would do what he could. Even if that meant being too nice for a member of the Yakuza.

“How about a strawberry smoothie?”

Goro beamed at the suggestion, nodding excitedly before he realized Iwai was facing away from him and couldn’t see his response.

“Yes, please!” he said excitedly, practically bouncing where he sat. “Thank you so much, Iwai-san! You’re the best!”


	2. Wake Up, Sunshine, Somebody Loves You For Yourself

When Goro Akechi first began presenting as an alpha, it was a surprise to absolutely no one, except to the young alpha himself, when the scent that developed along with his other alpha traits was, _of course,_ not strawberries.

It wasn’t even anything close.

Goro’s scent didn’t _have_ to be strawberries, he bargained one time with no one and nothing, because he did understand that developing a scent was random and he couldn’t just _pick it_ without the help of those gimmicky scent patches he sometimes saw advertised on late-night infomercials whenever Iwai fell asleep in front of the television.

 _(“Do you_ **_smell like_ ** _an omega?_ **_Are you_ ** _an omega? Would you rather smell like an Alpha to fend off some creeps? Well, stay turned, because do I have the product for you!!”)_

The young alpha really didn’t think it was too much to ask that his scent end up being something sweet-smelling, much like his mother had had; much like everyone who had ever actually nurtured him — Munehisa Iwai withstanding (though there was still a sweetness to be spoken of about an earthy, hot spring scent, especially when he had a subtle base scent of something floral) — had had. 

He would have been happy, ecstatic even, if his scent had even been something like chocolate or vanilla bean or candy or sugar cookies or peppermint or—

What Goro ended up with was pine.

Pine with a subtle sub-scent of cinnamon.

After spending the first couple of weeks after first developing his scent crying in his bedroom over it, Goro spent another several weeks developing a literal _whole PowerPoint presentation_ entitled “Pine and Peppermint are Actually the Same Thing,” detailing all the reasons why his scent _actually was_ sweet-smelling like he had wanted it to be. 

He proceeded to show his presentation to anyone with enough sympathy to listen to him.

(When Iwai made an appointment with Tae Takemi to ask about Goro’s behavior, she simply said he was shocked and he would be alright; he would come to terms with his scent as it was eventually. It was nothing to worry about, in her official opinion.)

The points of Goro’s presentation were as followed:

  1. Pine and cinnamon combined was like popurri, which was Christmas 
  2. Pine in and of itself was the scent of a Christmas tree 
  3. Christmas was very sweet, with all the candy and cookies and all that



In conclusion, pine plus cinnamon combined equaled Christmas, and Christmas was equal to sweet… 

Therefore, in further conclusion, as the data very obviously showed, Goro Akechi’s scent of pine and cinnamon actually _was_ a sweet one.

Right?

To be completely fair…

Goro didn't actually know anything about Christmas. Everything he did know was from cartoons and movies he had seen as a child, living with his mother in a group home for (omega and beta) women and children.

From the movies and cartoons, he knew about the holiday, knew what it was, and knew kids his age believed in a mystical, mythical entity called _Santa_ who brought all the good boys and girls presents.

This Santa character, though, was someone Goro never got the chance to believe in. He was told by his mother early on, at quite the young age, that it was bullshit and Santa was just mommies and daddies bringing gifts. She told him the truth, she said, to spare him the heartache of not receiving gifts, which he never did.

It wasn’t because he wasn’t a good child, because he was, as his mother told him over and over again… It was because his mother couldn’t afford presents.

Even without gifts, Christmases in the home were alright. At least he was around people who loved and cared about him.

When he was taken from his mother, to live with his father at his estate, it was obvious _he_ could absolutely afford gifts… but it was _also_ just as quickly obvious that his father would just as soon “gift him” a black eye rather than a toy.

Not that he ever did, because of Iwai, but he had had a few close calls. Especially on Christmas one year, but he chose to not think about _that_ as much as possible.

It didn’t matter, anyway.

Goro had long since been told Santa was not real by the time he made it to Shido. As such, Christmas didn’t have any magic to it, nor did it have any meaning, except for the little bit of time he has been able to spend with his mother because she didn’t have to work on the holiday. It was mostly just another day.

Furthermore, presents for Christmas (or birthdays, for that matter) was simply something that didn’t happen for some kids, and _he_ was part of that. He wasn’t sad or disappointed when he ended up with his father, who couldn’t have cared less about making him happy. It was just the way that it was. He just spent Christmases alone instead of in a group home, receiving just as many gifts as he got while living with his mother.

Christmas was… a day.

It wasn’t until the first Christmas _after_ Goro fully presented as an alpha (which was also the first Christmas Iwai had managed to escape the stranglehold of the Yakuza, taking then twelve year old Goro with him) that he got a taste of what Christmas actually was — and why he had been _absolutely and completely right_ in his very logical assessment. 

Pine did indeed equal Christmas trees which equaled sweetness.

“Goro,” Iwai’s familiar voice said tenderly, brushing a hand through the young alpha’s shaggy, brown hair. His other hand lightly shook his shoulder, shaking his whole frame. “Goro, little prince, wake up. It’s Christmas morning. There’s some presents in the living room for you.”

Almost immediately, Goro shot straight up in bed. His sudden reaction almost threw Iwai back on his ass, but he kept his footing and merely laughed before standing up fully and stepping back from the bed. He had a smile as bright as the sun as he looked down at Goro, watching the small boy who couldn’t possibly look more excited, as he scrambled out of bed and made for his dresser to put on clothes.

It was probably ridiculous for a thirteen year old (and an alpha on top of that) to respond in such a way to something as silly as the notion of _presents under a Christmas tree,_ but it was the first time anyone had _ever_ woken him up by telling him there were presents waiting for him. He didn’t want to make Iwai wait and _he_ didn’t want to wait. Someone had _bought him things_ and he had no intention of being rude by dawdling and taking his time.

It was what his mother had taught him; it was what his father had drilled into him: be kind, be generous, and _don’t waste other peoples’ time._

Besides, he was _excited._

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Iwai laughed, putting a hand on Goro’s shoulder to slow him down and steady him. He halted in the middle of putting on his shirt. “Calm down there, Prince Charming,” he said warmly. “There’s no fire or nothing. You ain’t gotta get dressed so fast. Hell, you ain’t gotta get dressed at all. Your pajamas are fine for today,” he explained, letting Goro go when he was sure he wouldn’t rush around again.

He didn’t.

“B’sides,” Iwai continued, his smile growing even brighter. “I have a special breakfast for us before we open our gifts. We’re makin’ a whole day of this.”

Goro forced himself to slow down.

A special breakfast _and_ gifts _and_ he could stay in his pajamas all day? He was always told by his mom he had to look presentable before leaving his bedroom. His father told him the same thing, but he was much more harsh and stern about it. The notion that he could have breakfast in his pajamas was already mind boggling, but also stay in them all day?

If Iwai insisted.

“Can I put my pajamas back on?”

“Of course, Goro,” Iwai said, still smiling. “Go ahead. Meet me in the kitchen when you’re ready, alright?”

“Okay, Iwai-san.”

Iwai’s smile didn’t fade as he ruffled up Goro’s shaggy hair before turning to leave the bedroom. He paused for a moment, then turned to look over his shoulder at the boy who was already working on getting back into his pajamas, but with much less of a fire under his butt his time.

“Oh, and… Goro?”

Goro looked up toward the door from where he sat on the edge of his bed, giving Iwai a nonverbal response of a risen eyebrow. He stopped in the middle of getting out of his regular, every day pants to put his green pajama pants back on.

“Yes?”

“Call me Mune.”

Goro grinned brightly and nodded. “Okay, Mune-san!” he said brightly. “I just need to put on my pajamas pants and shirt and I’ll be in the kitchen for breakfast, okay?”

Mune grinned brightly right back at him, nodded, and left the room without another word. He headed down the hallway to the kitchen, to put the final touches on what would (hopefully) end up being the perfect Christmas.

Goro would love it.

•••

“Ryuji, where are you going? You can’t get a piercing! You don’t have permission!”

With a smug grin, Ryuji dug a pink, crumpled up piece of paper out of his pocket. After taking a moment to unwrinkle it and smooth it out, he flashed it at Akira, his grin growing even brighter and even more smug, as if to say, _Gotcha! What’re you gonna do now?!_

“Gimme that!” Akira exclaimed, snatching away the paper before Ryuji had a chance ro pull it back. 

It was Akira’s turn to wordlessly tease with _Gotcha! What’re you gonna do now?!_ by sticking his tongue out his boyfriend before he looked down at the paper, eyes quickly scanning over the page until he found what he was looking for—

“There is no way your mother read this! How dare you trick her into signing this!” Akira shoved the pink permission slip back in Ryuji’s hands, both of them momentarily frowning down at the paper until Akira almost scowled at it. “No piercing is worth lying to your mother, Ryuji!”

“Oh, come on, Akira! What crawled up yer ass and died?! I thought ya wanted t’ see me with a piercing! Stop bein’ a stick in the mud!”

“Duh! Of course I want to see you with a piercing!” 

Akira countered the comment then threw his hands up in the air with a frustrated groan. As his hands fell back to his sides, he took a moment to scrub the right one over his eyes and face before he continued on his tangent.

“I'm not a _‘stick in the mud’_ because I think this isn’t worth lying to your mother over and getting in trouble for forgery or whatever you did to get her signature on that page! You have no idea how lucky you are to have a—!”

“Oh, don’t going bringin’ that up! ‘Sides, I didn’t forge her signature! I—!”

“Hey! Will you two shut the fuck up?!”

Sudden hissing cut into the conversation, startling the bickering teens, forcing them to stop. It was Akira who looked over first, after a moment, confirming that which was already obvious: The voice belonged to none other than Goro Akechi. 

Ryuji and Akira knew Goro’s voice all too well; were very much used to his hissing and yelling by now. The alpha and co-owner of _Untouchable_ frequently stepped outside to bark at them for being much too loud; to reprimand them for their bickering.

It was one thing for Ryuji to be loud, but when they both were…?

“Stop your damn bickering and get in this shop before I smack both your damn heads together,” he said. “How many times do I have to tell you two to not bicker in front of the damn store?! You’re going to steer away the few customers we actually get, damn it!”

Ryuji and Akira looked at one another for a moment before they both snickered, all but pushing past Goro to get into the building as they giggled between themselves. 

If there was one thing they learned in all the times Goro got mad at them, it was that he wasn’t going to follow through on any of his threats, no matter what they were. He was all talk and no show, as though he didn’t actually have what it took to punish a pair of troublesome, annoying omegas. 

The pair still respected and listened to Goro, of course, but it wasn’t because they thought he was going to hurt them; it wasn't because he was some big, bad, scary alpha.

…It was because _Munehisa Iwai_ was a big, bad, scary alpha; it was because _Mune_ threatened to punish them and, for the life of them, they had no idea if he was serious or not — and they didn’t ever plan to or want to find out.

(They also respected Goro simply because he was a decent person, if rough around the edges, but they only ever listened to him for fear Mune would step in.)

Mune was far too pleasant and kind for them to truly test the boundaries of, so they did what Goro said before the true alpha male of their little pack was forced to intervene. 

Perhaps the big reason Goro wasn’t able to instill the fear of god into Akira and Ryuji the same way Mune did was because of the obvious patch he wore on the back of his neck (which was just about the only place he wasn’t covered in tattoos, save for his face and hands, minus his knuckles). It was the beigeish one (as opposed to the multicolored omega patch) that muted all of his alpha traits except the way he smelled, making him essentially the same as a beta. 

The only reason anyone even knew Goro was an alpha was because he said he was — and combined with the patch, the claim checked out.

No one asked why Goro wore a patch.

“I think we interrupted playtime with his little train again,” Akira said, sniggering as he climbed into a nest he and Ryuji had made in the corner of the store some weeks (or maybe it was months) earlier. “We gotta remember that five to six in the evening is train time!”

Ryuji grinned as he followed his boyfriend, climbing in the nest, as well, then climbed into Akira’s lap. He wiggled around for a moment to get comfortable, making a whole show of it. It wasn’t until Akira grabbed his hips that Ryuji stopped moving around and nuzzled back against his nesting partner.

Both of them looked as happy as could be.

It was like they hadn’t just been bickering outside the store at all.

“Sorry, ‘Kechi!” Ryuji snickered, looking over at the alpha standing beside the door as Akira wrapped his arms around him, making the slightly-younger-than-Akira omega purr. “Didn’t mean t’ come between you and yer train!”

Goro rolled his eyes.

“I wasn’t playing with my train, thank you,” he said a bit indignantly. “I was doing my _job_ and taking care of the store while Mune-san is out doing some errands, if you two must know.”

“We didn’t ask.”

“Well, I’m _telling you, anyway._ Not everyone just bickers in front of peoples’ places of business and then takes up real estate in the corner of the actual store. Some people actually have _things to do.”_

“I do have things to do!” Akira countered. “I just got a job, thank you very much — and I actually start tonight! It’s the least I can do to help Sojiro, who’s been housing me for so long. I just had to _turn sixteen first,_ thank you very much.”

“Yeah!” Ryuji added, looking at Akira then over at Goro. “And I ain’t even sixteen yet, so I can’t get one! Just cuz yer twenty and been workin’ here for forever don’t mean all of us can just get a job as easy as you! You just got a job here because you’re the boss’s son.”

“I am not his son!” Goro shot back, squeezing his hands in and out of fists for a moment to calm himself down. They were just trying to file him up, he told himself. They were just trying to rile him up.

“Besides,” he continued after a moment, turning to the cash register to open it and begin counting the money. “I got a new job, too. Another job, I guess. I also start tonight.”

“Oooh! What’s the job?! Spill the tea!”

Akira and Ryuji spoke in unison, as they often did, both of them grinning brightly at Goro. It made him blush, if only because it felt like they were bearing those grins into his soul.

“It’s none of your business,” he said, counting through a large stack of bills and a pile of coins. He had one elbow resting on the counter as he did so. “I only told you to prove I don’t just have a job because I’m the _boss’s son_ or whatever bullshit.”

“Boo~” Akira whined and rolled his eyes, wrapping his arms tighter around Ryuji. “We aren’t babies. We can handle hearing about the job you got sucking dick and fucking omegas, if you can even do that with that patch on your neck,” he mused.

“Oooh.” Ryuji grinned brightly, turning his head and upper body to look at Akira over his shoulder. “Maybe he gotta job lettin’ alphas fuck him, ‘Kira!”

That sent them both into a fit of laughter.

“As if!” Akira laughed and shook his head. It was funny regardless of believability. “Patch or not, I don’t think Goro’s looking for some alphas to Bitch him.”

Goro looked up, looking over at the giggling pair in the nest in the corner of the store. He watched them for a moment, listening to them giggle. They’d seemed to all but forget about their previous tiff (which was good, because Goro refused to pierce Ryuji), now focused on laughing at Goro for…?

“‘Bitch’ me?” he echoed, eyebrows raised. “What the hell does that mean?”

Ryuji answered immediately, as if he had had the answer locked and loaded, ready to answer this exact question. Goro didn’t know if that sat well with him or not, especially after finding out what it meant.

“It’s when an alpha fucks ya a lot and turns ya into an omega. You lose your knot and your dick gets smaller,” he said. “I’m pretty sure you also gain the ability to carry babies but I ain’t sure. Your scent even changes to an omega scent.”

“Two omegas can do the same thing, kinda,” Akira added. “It’s called Studding. If one of us topped the other a lot, the other one could become an alpha… which is why we only finger one another and—”

“Yes, yes, I get it. Thank you,” Goro said, waving his hands to shut the pair up (though mostly Akira), going back to counting out the money in the cash register. “I understand. Thank you.”

“Good,” Akira said, grinning. “So make sure you don’t let any alphas fuck you at your new job!”

“Shut up!”

Akira and Ryuji only laughed.

”Goro,” Ryuji said after about five minutes, when their laughter settled down. He got up from the nest, making his way to the person he was addressing. “I want a piercing. My ears. I have the permission slip right here.”

Akira groaned.

With more important things on his mind, Goro pretended like he hadn’t heard the bickering outside the store earlier (or Akira’s obvious groan of protest just now) and proceeded as normal; proceeded like it was any other minor with any other permission slip.

After all, Ryuji had the permission slip filled out and signed. As long as he had that, then it wasn’t his problem, nor did he care, how he got it.

”Wait for Mune-san to get back, Ryuji,” Goro said, pointing Ryuji back to his nest. He didn’t even look up from his counting as he spoke or as he pointed. “He’ll be be here soon.”

When the overwhelming scent of sad omega filled the room, Goro sighed and lamented, finally looking up at Ryuji, who looked as sad as he smelled. He hated sad omegas. They tugged at heartstrings that weren’t very often pulled — and it was miserable.

“I’m not trying to hand you off, Ryuji,” he added (although he kind of was, because he didn’t want to do it, he just had a valid excuse not to he could give). “I would do it, but I have a scheduled appointment to do someone’s tattoo in about ten minutes. Mune-san will take care of it.”

That seemed to suffice Ryuji, who went back to the nest with a grin, nuzzling up to Akira, who held him in return, no longer complaining about the piercing — and much to Goro's surprise, they were, overall, in general, quiet so he could do his job.

…and also so he could think.

_Bitching, was it now?_

_What a fascinatingly vulgar term…_


End file.
